Federer and Murray ease through

Thursday 1 March 2012 16:37 BST

Roger Federer and Andy Murray have both progressed to the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Championships following straight-sets victories.

Four-time former champion Federer, seeded second in the absence of Rafael Nadal, took an 11-0 head-to-head record into his clash with Mikhail Youzhny and was rarely troubled in a 6-3 6-4 victory over the Russian.

Murray has endured a post-Australian Open dip in the past two years but is showing no signs of that this season and he progressed to the last four with a first win over Tomas Berdych since 2005.

The world number four had won only one of their previous four meetings but came through a sometimes scrappy clash with the fifth seed 6-3 7-5.

Murray made a great start, winning the first seven points and saving four break points on his way to taking the opening set. He was twice a break ahead in the second but let it slip both times before gaining the crucial advantage when he broke again in the 11th game.

Still it was not straightforward, Murray seeing six match points come and go and then saving a break point in controversial circumstances after a HawkEye challenge before finally wrapping up victory on his seventh chance.

Murray conceded he had lost his way a little bit in the second set but was happy that he managed to get across the winning line. "Tactically I was doing the right things, and then maybe got away from that a little bit," the 24-year-old said. "But I just hung in at the end. I fought and scrambled and did what I had to do to win."

Next up for Murray is world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic, who survived a second-set fightback by fellow Serbian Janko Tipsarevic to reach the semis.

Djokovic broke his opponent's serve twice to take the first set but Tipsarevic blasted back in the second and held set-point to take the match into a decider before the favourite prevailed 6-1 7-6 (8/6).